Blind faith

SF Hall of Fame, redux

Whatever, redux

For some time now (at least ten years, since the movie “Clueless” popularized the “whatever” gesture, made with the thumb and forefinger of both hands, to form the letter “W”), “whatever” has been the bane of anyone trying to persuade an adversary or a child of something that this adversary or child would prefer not to be persuaded of. “Whatever” is as incendiary as it is nonchalant; the nonchalance is what makes it incendiary. “Whatever” turns disengagement into something withering and mean.

Nick Paumgarten
The Talk of the Town: Fighting Words: Whatever
The New Yorker (7/11/2005)

I guess this must be one of my personal pet peeves, because I've written about it myself:

Is there anything more annoying in everyday civil conversation than being blown off with "Whatever"? It's the wave of the hand, the shrug of the shoulders and the turning away, the denial of legitimacy, the non-specific put-down that's too bored to do any real work. Whether it comes from a teenager or an adult, an opponent or someone supposed to be a friend, I find it infuriating, and my response is to just shut down.

Anyone who thinks I merit a "whatever" doesn't merit my continued attention, at least not then and there. If the word is wielded with the purpose of shutting down the conversation, then it works, but the cost is perhaps greater then realized at the time, for "whatever" not only shuts it down now, it lingers on to squealch it for the immediate future as well.